State Revenue Up Almost Twice The Amount Of Defeated Income Tax Cut

All the projections showed revenue increasing when voters said NO by 80% to fuel tax increases, but Republicans passed them anyway.

Last January, Gov. Rick Snyder was asked if he would support a modest income tax cut. “When people talk about rollbacks near-term or other things, the big question to ask is what are you going to otherwise cut or where are you going to get other revenue to replace that? So I’m open-minded but people need to answer the second part of the question, also,”

There’s now a new answer (in addition to some offered at the time): In the first six months of 2017, Michigan’s major taxes brought in $875.9 million more than the same period a year earlier, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. The state collected $13.9 billion through June 2017, a 6.3 percent increase over the first half of 2016.

An income-tax cut like the one Snyder discussed in that January 2017 article was defeated in the Michigan House of Representatives in February. It would have trimmed state revenue by $463 million, according to fiscal agency projections.

Twelve Michigan House Republicans joined all members of the Democratic caucus who were present to defeat that bill, which would have cut 0.2 percentage points from the income tax rate. Later that week, Snyder telephoned the 12 Republicans no-voters to thank them for their votes. Article (Thanks, Bob) You can click the link above to see the roll call vote. Here are the infamous 12, as a reminder: